Nanotechnology in Ireland

Back in the early ’90′s, I attended an industry meeting of milk processors.  The keynote speaker was a futurist, whose name I can’t recall.  But I certainly recall his address.  He was a very dynamic speaker who was preaching the gospel of nanotechnology.  He made several bold predictions about how nanotechnology was going to revolutionize human existence before the turn of the century.  He inspired me to buy a book called, Unbounding the Future, which extolled the virtues of nano as the science of the 21st century.  Of course, I never read the book,  but I remember the speech.

Now, here we are, tens years into the new century and nano seems still to reside in the outskirts of science, except maybe in Ireland.  According to a Financial Times video report, Ireland is betting on nanotechnology to position the country as scientific trailblazer.  Even in the face of crippling financial strains, the Irish government continues to invest significant sums in nanotechnology research.

The report focuses on the economic and scientific challenges and opportunities that nanotech offers.  It doesn’t get into the practical benefits that we can look forward to.

From a public affairs perspective, I expect that we’ll be seeing more about the risks involved in nanotech and those advancing this new science will need to address those concerns.  Best to do that in advance of the kind of uproar that was associated with biotech when genetically modified organisms were similarly proposed as the solution to multiple human problems.